Welcome back! In this week's edition of the trial, we picked up with Mr. Marino, the attorney for Port Rich Realty, questioning the witness I had brought. Surprisingly, he brought out the floor plan I had submitted in evidence, the plan that he had initially objected to as evidence. He asked my witness to identify each of the rooms, one by one, on the floor plan, which she did, by their alphanumeric designations and their tenants, vacated or not.
When my turn came to redirect, I decided to take a page out of his book. pulled up the HPD Order to Repair/Vacate Order that had been submitted as evidence, and, one by one, read off the violations, asking her to which room each individual violation referred. As each violation either covered the entire floor or described the room by its geographic location, she was able to identify each of them accurately.
Marino objected, one by one, to each question and this entire line of questioning, saying that it was irrelevant. However, having brought up, the week before, the issue of which room was which and what part of the building was under the vacate order, the judge said "you opened the door," and allowed the questioning.
Then it was Marino's turn to ask me questions. He asked me if I had received any mail at the location. It just so happened that I still had in my bag the mail that I had picked up the previous week; some junk mail, a bank statement, and some stuff regarding my retirement account. He asked the frequency of my visits and whether I was using the kitchen and bathroom for kitchen and bathroom purposes. Her had asked similar questions of my witness, and our stories matched up.
I summed up my case by stating the whole crux of my argument, that as had already been confirmed, I am a rent-stabilized tenant and have the right to access those parts of the building as my tenancy entitles that are not under any vacate orders, to wit: the kitchen, bathroom, and mailbox.
After I summed up my case, it was Marino's turn to present his. He built his case around the word "condemned" in the Rent Order from the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, claiming that the entire building has been condemned.
His opening was brief, and he called Al Hatem, Port Rich Realty's "Non-litigation attorney." This was interesting because, unlike my witness, he had been present for the entire trial. normally witnesses are not allowed to attend a trial Mr. Hatem revealed that he had been with Port Rich since its founding in 1997 and was property manager of 182 Graham Ave from 1997 - 2006. He claimed that the building had one apartment per floor when he was property manager. He was also asked if one dollar was within the range of market rents in the area.
His statement about the apartments was actually in direct conflict wit the testimony I had given in my opening statement. I had described in detail how the third floor had been under a "master tenant" until one day in which Mr. Hatem said "no more master tenants." When it came to be my turn to question him, I questioned him very specifically about the people involved and events leading up to that moment, and he claimed that he could not recall any of them.
Furthermore, though he could recall collecting rent checks, he could not recall ever collecting rent checks for more than one party per floor in the nine years he was property manager. This flew in the face of my witnesses testimony, as she and I were tenants at the same time, during his time as property manager, and each rented our rooms individually sending checks to him. He claimed he did not recall ever receiving checks from both of us on the same month.
Then I got to asking him about the Order to Repair/Vacate Order from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development. He had claimed that all the rooms were under the vacate order. There was lack of agreement and specificity over the definition of "apartment" and "room." It got so I had to say "the space enclosed by walls and only accessible by one door with (a specific number) on it" and asking if that room was subject to a particular violation.
He claimed to be uncertain as to whether specifically named rooms were under specific violations and vacate orders or not. After further questioning, it came down to asking him if there was anyone among Port Rich Realty who was capable of realizing what part of the building was affected by which violation and what order in the document issued by HPD.
At that point we ran out of time and were adjourned until April 20th, 9:30 AM.
But then on Thursday... (please go to the next post to find out what happened!)
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